The present invention relates to a material resting surface for a workpiece support, for use in cutting workpiece materials with non-mechanical cutting tools of the type which pass a cutting jet or the like through the workpiece and into the surface.
Such a material resting surface is to be used, for instance, in a water-jet cutting system and, as a result thereof, certain demands are made upon it. The basic requirement is that it be penetrable by the jet of water, which is under high pressure, without water collecting on its surface and then coming into contact with the material to be cut. Also, for reasons of economy, the resting surface should be usable to carry out several cutting processes without being destroyed.
Federal Republic of Germany OS No. 28 13 498 discloses a material resting surface which consists of a box profile assembled in honeycomb fashion, in which the vertices of the individual honeycombs serve as resting surfaces for the material to be cut. In this case, splashback effects on the grid are not prevented, so that the material resting on the surface is wetted when it is cut. Also, flexurally limp materials are pressed into the openings in the surface when they are cut, so that a very unclean cut results.
Federal Republic of Germany OS No. 28 13 499 discloses a bed for a fluid-jet cutting device which can consist of a plurality of rigid pins, or can be formed of resilient bristles which are sufficiently strong to support the material to be cut and at the same time sufficiently flexible to move away under a jet, of liquid. In order to be able also to cut flexurally limp material, these bristles must be very close to each other, and it follows from the domino effect that the bristles are moved away from the fluid-jet not singly but rather in large groups thereof, so that here also an unclean cutting edge is produced. Furthermore, in order to be able to ut cloth or similar material, a stretchable sheet of waterproof material must be placed over the cutting resting surface and that sheet is destroyed in the cutting operation.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,927,591 discloses a three-layer material resting surface in which a self-curing layer is arranged between an upper cover layer and a lower cover layer. This solution has the disadvantage that the upper cover layer becomes damaged and fringed after a short time and clean cuts are then no longer possible.